1. Field
The described embodiments relate to electronic devices that provide network connections. More specifically, the described embodiments relate to electronic devices that facilitate improved idling for network connections.
2. Related Art
Many modern electronic devices include networking subsystems that can be used to transfer data between the device and other devices across a wired or wireless network. For example, these electronic devices can include Bluetooth™ networking subsystems, cellular networking subsystems, universal serial bus (USB) networking subsystems, Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 wireless network subsystems, Ethernet networking subsystems, or wired or wireless personal-area networking (PAN) subsystems. In these electronic devices, each networking subsystem has an interface that includes the hardware (e.g., transmitters, radios, etc.) and/or software that is used by the electronic devices for communicating on the corresponding network.
In some of these electronic devices, the operating mode of a given networking subsystem's interface is controlled by an interface manager task. One of the functions of the interface manager task can be to determine when to save power by powering-down the interface based on a lack of network traffic on the interface. In these devices, when determining the level of network traffic on the interface, the interface manager task typically determines whether or not packets are being transferred at some minimum rate at a physical layer of interface.
Because the interface manager task uses the rate at which packets are transferred at the physical layer to make the determination about whether to power-down the interface, the interface manager task can erroneously power-down an interface that is still being used by an application. Specifically, if an application is still active (e.g., has not been exited by a user), but has simply not transferred packets using the interface for a predetermined amount of time, the interface manager task can power-down the interface. When the application subsequently resumes transferring packets, the application finds that the interface is down and can signal an error to the user (or may be forced to re-activate the interface). This can frustrate a user. For example, assume that two or more users are using a game application on portable electronic devices (e.g., laptops or smart phones) that rely on a network connection to transfer game data between the devices. If a pause of longer than a predetermined time occurs while transferring game data, the interface manager task in one of the devices may power-down the corresponding interface (or otherwise adjust the operating mode of the interface), which can disrupt the electronic device's ability to transfer game data through the interface, potentially leading to an interruption of the game.